We all love to be promoted, verbally by friends, graphically in print, or professionally by a superior. Promotions typically occur as a result of great past performance. But is that the only reason?

I was recently invited to a regularly scheduled Black Belt class in the martial arts style I study called Sanchin-Ryu. This invitation is NOT given regularly to non-black belts so I wanted to seize the opportunity. At the end of our two-hour workout, I was called up to the front and presented with my promotion form to Black Belt. You can imagine my elation. But that is not the only emotion I was experiencing.

In any example of promotion, the emotions that most people experience are excitement, elation and pride to name a few. These emotions are a result of the success from the past and are important.

It is normal to celebrate past accomplishments. There are 5 reasons why you should focus more on the future.

Continue Growing & Learning: Promotion does not signify it is time to stop learning and improving. It does not signal the end of the line. In fact, the opposite is more accurate. Promotions to great people motivate those people. They want to do more. They want to learn more. They want grow more. If someone stalls after their promotion, the promotion likely happened to the wrong person.

New Future Opportunities: After a promotion, interaction will likely be with different people in different ways. This provides new opportunities that were not available before the promotion. This is a priceless opportunity to help with #1.

Others Are Looking Up To You: If it hasn’t happened before, being promoted will make an impact on the journey of others that want to emulate your assent and learn from your wisdom.

Leadership Opportunities: Regardless if the promotion was to a management position or not, people want to learn from other successful people. You are likely leading someone whether you realize it or not.

New Perspective: You are a new person entering into what is usually an existing position. This “newness” provides you with a unique perspective you wont have forever. Offer ideas for changes. Ask questions about why something doesn’t make sense. Offer praise for things that seem to be going really well. You will never have this perspective again.

Spend time celebrating a promotion. Be proud of the past and then quickly start focusing on the future. What are some of the things you have reflected on after being promoted? Leave a comment. I would love to hear more perspectives.

You are smart. You want to be smarter. Listening to, reading, and following Michael Hyatt’s very simple ideas and messages will do just that.

I was at the Exhibit Designers and Producers Association’s ACCESS conference in Palm Springs, California in December 2012. A leadership keynote speaker at the conference was Tony Bell, who drew me in immediately with his speaking ability and his leadership content. At dinner that evening, I caught up with him and we talked about his presentation. He asked me what I thought about Michael Hyatt’s book “Platform” and if I thought it would change anything I am doing regarding blogging. Someone else had asked me about this book a week prior. When I returned home from the conference I bought the book and began learning from Michael Hyatt. There are 5 reasons I continue to consume the content Michael Hyatt produces.

Easy to Understand Instructions: His book is a great example of the rest of the content he produces. He puts everything in a simple format that easy to read and understand. He does not include a lot of fluff that doesn’t add to the value of what he is writing or saying.

Leadership Insights for Anyone: They are simple. You can be a six-figure annual-income executive or any income level. You are bound to get great value from his leadership insight: goal setting, management do’s and dont’s, coaching/mentoring tips, and a ton more.

Audio Content when On-The-Go: At the time of this writing, he has produced 74 podcasts, where nearly everyone one of them are outstanding. Some of my favorites are on journaling, note taking, and productivity.

Limitless Leadership Coaching: Well, it is almost limitless with all of the content available between his blog posts, books, podcasts and web content. My trouble is not finding something that is helpful, but narrowing it down to choose the few things I want to read, listen to or watch.

Personal Improvement: He talks and writes about many things in this area. Set up a blog to enhance your personal brand, efficiently pack a travel bag, improve your productivity, and great techniques for goal setting.

If you have not heard of Michael Hyatt before this, do yourself a favor and check out his web page at www.MichaelHyatt.com. You are able to navigate to the rest of his channels from there. I promise you will not be disappointed. Through December 2013, the e-book format of Platform is on sale for $2.99.

I am always looking for inspiring leaders. What is your impression of Michael’s content? What do you like and what do you not like? Do you have someone else you feel strongly about?

Who makes the statement, “let’s get together sometime” and really means it? If the invitation was sincere, it would not be for “sometime”, but for a specific date or specific date options. Being too general and non-specific will only lead to frustration for everyone involved.

Just the other day I asked someone in the office if they would start on a project “sometime soon”. As it turns out, the other person thought I meant to start when they got around to it. You guessed it. They hadn’t gotten around to it yet. I didn’t realize my communication error until I followed up with that person a few days later for a progress report.

I have thought of 4 simple ways to make sure that “sometime” DOES come.

Be clear with your communication of due dates. Use specific date/time references.

If communication is verbal, make sure you follow it up with an email or a confirmation phone call.

If a colleague uses the “sometime” due date, make sure you ask for a specific date.

If a colleague simply says they will do something with no due date, make sure you get a specific date for this too.

Too often people assume clarity has been conveyed when in reality it has not. Assumptions take over, deadlines are doomed and disappointment is inevitable.I am certain I am not alone in this experience. I would love to hear your experiences in this area of sometime. How did you deal with it?

All great leaders look for continuous improvements. Improvements in their business, their staff and most of all in themselves.

Have you ever experienced your child doing something that is irritating? Did you ever notice that irritating act and then realize they copied it from you? I have realized this too many times.

One thing that separates good leaders from great leaders is the ability of self-relfection.

Too many people go around clueless to how they are treating people or communicating with people. If you dont realize what you are doing or saying, how can you make improvements?

Some people surround themselves with others that will be brutally honest and tell them. But most leaders must learn to be self-relfective. There are 5 steps to go through in order to self-reflect.

Listen to what you are saying. It is simple to turn into the Incredible Hulk, lose control and say things you dont mean to say. Choose your words carefully.

Listen to how you are saying things. You can use the same words and they can be heard in many different ways. It’s All About The Delivery!

Pay attention to the reactions of others. Was it what you intended or were you surprised? Obviously, being surprised should be a flag to you and moving to Step 4 with it is critical for making improvements.

Relfect on your interactions with people and decide if you could or should have handled it differently. This is the 2nd most important step of self reflection.

Decide to handle similar situations differently the next time

How do you self-reflect?

Keep your eyes open. Inspiration can come from anywhere.

This post was inspired by my own continuous desire for improvement. I often coach others about self-awareness and it starts with self-reflection

I was honored and excited to be asked to write a blog post to our corporate blog. All of the previous posts were by our creative staff, which were very good and also very different from what I write. As I thought about what to write I was inspired by an article I read in the Wall Street Journal. From there, Imagination IS Innovation was born. I hope you enjoy.

Most com­pa­nies claim they are inno­v­a­tive. The word is used in com­pa­nies’ names. It is used in describ­ing their ser­vices. It is also used when describ­ing their peo­ple. But what is it that leads to these claims? [read more]

Many years ago my high school health class teacher would announce “get out your pen, pencil or crayon” when he was giving us a surprise quiz. If he is still teaching today, he would likely tell everyone “get out your laptop, tablet or mobile device”.

I read an article recently in the Wall Street Journal titled The Lost Art of the Handwritten Note. It mentions a British survey which states 1 in 3 people did not write a single thing by hand in the past 6 months. I am shocked and not surprised at the same time. Is that possible? This clearly illustrates how our society has gone nearly entirely electronic. And I am no different. I scan any document I need to save. I use my iPhone & iPad to access files, take notes, and send messages.

Hand written notes have gone by the wayside. As the WSJ indicates, it is truly a lost art and is nearly extinct. For those that have received them, it is something very meaningful. The sender took extra effort to write & send you a note.

This past holiday season, I decided to expand my professional holiday card list. I also decided to write a note in each one of them. It was not an easy task, but it felt better than simply signing my name or worse, just stuffing them in the envelope unsigned.

In our fast-paced world, if you want to be noticed in 2013, write a personal, hand-written note. It will set you apart from everyone who only send emails & text messages.

Keep your eyes open. Inspiration can come from anywhere.

This post was inspired by years of guidance from Mick Parrott regarding the value of writing a note to people. Thank you, Mick. Once again you are right on the money.

With the Presidential election in a few days, we have been inundated with polls: taking them and hearing the results of them. But I ask, what is the purpose? I want to think it is to reflect the opinion of the public. But the more I read, hear, and see for myself, it appears their purpose is to create public opinion. No one wants to say they voted for the loser. So the poll results saying one person is leading over the other is bound to be a factor in the votes cast. The topic I will not approach is poll manipulation. If you want an interesting read, check out the Wall Street Journal article, “Can We Believe the Presidential Polls?”, from a couple of weeks ago.

In the workplace, some leaders take the approach of making decisions based on their own knowledge and experiences and in their own vacuum. Other leaders “poll” the opinions of others to help make their decisions. Good leaders use both of these approaches. Great leaders understand the importance of when to use both approaches for maximum efficiency, effectiveness and buy-in.

Keep your eyes open. Inspiration can come from anywhere.

This post was inspired by Chris Lake, COO of Highmark Techsystems, during one of our Beer Summits while we always attempt to solve the world’s problems.